Musk Wants OpenAI Back, Reasons Behind AI-Skepticism, Wardley Mapping and more

All AI on Musk-Altman chess & mess.

Author

Charbel Zeaiter
February 14, 2025

Good afternoon!

Yesterday was hectic, so this is a delayed update on what happened before Wednesday. And it’s a lot.

Musk is bidding for everything, wanting OpenAI at $97B. AI Video is going to get even more insane with ByteDance and Adobe making major announcements and releases. USA tops the list for best places for designers to work, with (this will surprise you) coming in at 4th - how’s that for clickbait?

Have a great afternoon 🙏🏽

Yours in Wonder,
Charbel
Founder of Velvet Onion, Faster Zebra and more to come …

Today’s Highlights

  • AI: Musk Throws $97B at To Get OpenAI Back

  • Design: Why Some People Still Don’t Trust the Machines

  • Science & Tech: Gyroscope Chips: Tiny GPSes but Centimetre-Accurate

  • Founding: Untangling Human Mess > Filling Up Templates: What’s Truly A Strategy?

  • Product: Wardley Mapping: To Keep Up With Your Buyer and the Market

  • Today’s AI image: Gyroscope Chip: “He’s sitting on the 5th tile of his drawing room.”

  • Quote for the day: 1 Advice Every Living Soul Needs

AI

Musk Throws $97B at To Get OpenAI Back

Elon Musk has thrown down a $97.4 billion bid to take over OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, reigniting tensions with CEO Sam Altman.

With deep-pocketed investors backing him, Musk is determined to shake things up.

All You Need To Know

  • His legal team submitted the bid, backed by xAI, Valor Equity Partners, and Baron Capital.

  • OpenAI is shifting to a for-profit model, with $40 billion from SoftBank on the table.

  • He wants OpenAI to return to open-source AI and vows to top any competing offers.

  • He dismissed Musk’s bid on X, joking about buying Twitter for $9.74 billion, to which Musk fired back, calling him a “swindler.”

Why is this a big deal?

This isn’t just a personal spat—it’s a high-stakes battle for AI’s future. Musk has long criticized OpenAI and won’t back down easily.

With both he and Altman deeply tied to U.S. tech policy, expect more fireworks ahead.

Also in AI

Design

Why Some People Still Don’t Trust the Machines

Despite AI outperforming humans in many fields—medicine, creativity, analytics—people still hesitate to trust it.

Studies show we instinctively downgrade AI-generated work, even when it’s objectively superior.

Is it a fear of obsolescence or just human stubbornness?

AI Bias:

  • Same Work, Different Label, Different Score – When given identical medical advice, people rated it less credible and less empathetic if told it came from AI rather than a doctor.

  • AI in Creativity? No Problem – In ad creation, AI-generated content often outscored human-made work, though people still gave a slight edge to human-labelled content.

  • AI as a Friend? Not Quite – While users valued AI companions for being non-judgmental and always available, they still saw them as fundamentally less “real” than human relationships.

  • When AI + Human Works (and When It Doesn’t) – Teams of humans and AI outperform humans alone—but not always AI alone.

    In tasks like medical diagnostics, human intervention sometimes reduces accuracy by second-guessing correct AI answers.

  • The Right Match Matters – AI is most useful in creative, open-ended work where human intuition meets AI efficiency.

    In reasoning tasks, AI boosts human performance—but only when users trust its accuracy.

AI is about how we perceive intelligence and agency.

The right balance between human intuition and AI precision could reshape industries, but trust issues remain a hurdle.

Until we stop judging AI like a robot overlord and start seeing it as a tool, we might be holding ourselves back more than the machines ever could.

Also in Design

Science & Tech

Gyroscope Chips: Tiny GPSes but Centimetre-Accurate

Satellite-based GPS has long dominated navigation, but it comes with a fatal flaw—it’s vulnerable to jamming, spoofing, and signal loss, especially in conflict zones or remote locations.

Enter a new breed of gyroscope-on-a-chip technology, developed by Anello Photonics and One Silicon Chip Photonics (OSCP).

How This Tech Works

  • Optical gyroscopes use the Sagnac effect for precise rotation sensing, unaffected by interference or hacking.

  • Advances in silicon photonics have shrunk bulky optical gyroscopes to chip size without compromising accuracy.

  • These systems cross-check GPS with inertial data, switching to gyroscopes when satellite signals falter.

  • Anello’s system has just a 0.1% error rate—deviating only 100 metres over a 100-kilometre trip.

  • From autonomous farming to deep-sea drones, this tech thrives where GPS fails.

  • Gyroscope-equipped devices could help firefighters navigate smoke-filled buildings with zero visibility.

Why This Matters

GPS blackouts aren't just an inconvenience. They can cripple military operations, disrupt autonomous vehicles, and render drones useless.

With miniaturised optical gyroscopes offering centimetre-level accuracy, this technology has the potential to revolutionise navigation, making it more resilient and reliable in environments where traditional GPS fails.

Also in Science & Tech

Founding

Untangling Human Mess > Filling Up Templates: What’s Truly A Strategy?

All strategy frameworks boil down to four elements: identifying key questions, using tools to answer them, structuring insights visually, and deploying decisions effectively.

Whether it’s Zone to Win or Wardley Mapping, each offers a distinct lens but follows this same fundamental structure.

Why Strategy Feels Overcomplicated

The complexity of strategy isn’t in the frameworks themselves—it’s in the uncertainty they operate within.

No matter how well-designed a model is, decisions must be made with incomplete information, shifting priorities, and evolving business landscapes.

Different Frameworks, Different Thinking Styles

Some frameworks cater to highly structured thinkers (e.g., Porter’s Five Forces), while others thrive in ambiguity (Wardley Mapping).

Strategy tools range from rigid playbooks to fluid, interpretive approaches like Richard Rumelt’s "kernel" (diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent actions).

The Real Challenge: People, Not Frameworks

Frameworks are merely tools—strategy itself is a social, political, and narrative exercise.

The hardest part isn't picking the right model.

It's aligning teams, navigating organisational power dynamics, and getting in terms with uncertainty instead of forcing rigid, over-engineered plans.

No framework alone guarantees success.

The real skill lies in knowing which questions to ask, when to ask them, and how to involve the right people in the decision-making process.

Filling boxes and dashes don’t run orgs. People do.

Also in Founding

Product

Wardley Mapping: To Keep Up With Your Buyer and the Market

First introduced by Simon Wardley, Wardley Mapping is a technique for sharpening strategic awareness by mapping an organisation’s competitive landscape.

Unlike other strategy tools that dive deep into details, this approach zooms out to reveal broader ecosystems.

The Core Concepts of Wardley Maps

Wardley Maps structure strategy using three key elements:

  • Users (the people who engage with your product)

  • Needs (the tasks users aim to accomplish)

  • Capabilities (the underlying functions required to meet those needs)

Every user is linked to a need, and every need connects to a capability. However, capabilities never connect directly to users—they always bridge through needs.

The map’s x-axis categorises capabilities by their level of maturity:

  • Genesis – brand-new, cutting-edge innovations

  • Custom – specialised solutions requiring expertise

  • Product – standardised offerings that can be purchased

  • Commodity – widely available and expected functionalities

Meanwhile, the y-axis represents visibility to users. Some features, like document reading, are highly visible, while others, like indexing for search, operate behind the scenes.

Mapping the Present—And Predicting the Future

Wardley Maps don’t just depict current states; they also anticipate shifts over time.

For example, an AI-powered editing tool might eventually replace traditional document creation, with AI-driven models from providers like OpenAI making the process more commoditised.

Strategic differentiation might then shift towards enhanced search functionality rather than content creation.

While real-world maps can be complex, they all boil down to the same fundamental principles, making it a powerful tool for any strategist’s toolkit.

Today’s AI Image

Gyroscope Chip: “He’s sitting on the 5th tile of his drawing room.”

Quote of the Day

1 Advice Every Living Soul Needs

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

Arthur Ashe

What we’re working on

Velvet Onion & Friends

The new Velvet Onion & Friends will be launched soon. It’s our latest evolution, helping companies build products. It’s more than services.

Faster Zebra

February 2025 - the product and venture school journey begins. Whitepaper launching in January.

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Charbel

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